You Are Not a Unicorn

Every entrepreneur at some point in time in their career has felt like they were special, different, unique, the only person who could do what they were doing. I've been there. I've been in that place where I thought it was me. I had to do it. I had to be the person in the room.

No one else could replicate I was doing. I have news for you, I am not a unicorn and neither are you. If you start thinking you're the only person who can do something, that is going to be the biggest barrier to you scaling your business that you could ever create.

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum Podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to.

We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop, and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future. And instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We, are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be.

This is a recurring topic of conversation in our coaching group. It comes up all the time where somebody in a group or in a call or on one of our events will say, "Here's the issue, I'm the only person who can ..." And then they will fill in afterwards with what the thing is that they believe they're the only person in the world that they can do. And what I will normally do is patiently listen to them, listen to what they're saying, and then when they're done, I'll say, "I don't think you're the only person in here who's a unicorn. And I don't think that what you just said is really true because what we're saying is right now that's how you perceive the world to be, but the reality is that just isn't how it is. You can get help, you can find out what's tactical in what you're doing, you can get a ton of leverage around what you're doing and you might end up doing a very small fraction of what you're doing right now. But I don't think you're at the point where you are in your unique ability doing the only things that you should do and being able to do what you're good at most of the time right now." And most of the time people agree.

In fact, it's funny, one of my favorite clients, Jason Bradley, I've told him this over and over again and he's actually been on our program before, he came back again. He and his wife Rachel are making massive progress this time, and he actually put a video in our Facebook group where he shared with all the other members. He said, "You know what I've realized? I am not a freaking unicorn and he didn't use the word freaking. Then he said it a bunch of times and he was really emotional because here's what happens, we get to the places entrepreneurs, where we think we are so special we convince ourselves, our ego convinces us we are the only person who can do what we're doing and that becomes the biggest barrier to scaling our business, scaling our growth and scaling what we're doing and getting more of an impact and more income. And I've been there.

In fact, it's funny, today I was going through some of the frameworks in our Momentum Masterclass because June is the end of our planning year. So next month is the beginning of the year for me personally, and for Cadey, and for our business. And so I'm going through our annual planning process that is clearly spelled out in our Momentum Masterclass program and here's what's interesting, Momentum Masterclass, that process is a process that I used to think I had to be in the room to facilitate in order for it to be successful. In fact, that's how I used to do it, it was with one-on-one coaching in small groups.

In fact, it's funny that Jason Bradley's name, I just used Jason as an example in this podcast because a few years ago I did the exact framework for a small group of chiropractors that he had. I flew up, I can't even remember where we were, I think it might've been Denver, and I did that Momentum Masterclass framework. There's a lot of involvement, or a lot of really relative topics here in this podcast. And I did it in a small group, I did it in person, and then I came back. And within a few months one of my team members had convinced me that the Momentum Masterclass frameworks, the frameworks to lower pressure and noise, achieve massive focus, get really clear on what you want from your relationship with yourself, your relationship with others and your spouse and your relationship with your business. They convinced me it just had to go online, more people needed to be able to see it, we needed to get leverage around it.

And so I ended up committing, sitting down and recording it. It wasn't easy because in my head I had this loop playing like, is this going to work? Is this going to be successful? Is this something that people will be able to do on their own? And then we recorded it anyway. We put it out, and here's one of the first experiences I had after we put it out. Here I am in my ego, and I'm telling myself, that I had to be there and if I'm not there with people they're not going to get the same amount out of Momentum Masterclass. They're not going to get the same amount out of it. They're not going to get the same results from the frameworks.

So I created a test, I actually gave it to a friend of mine, a chiropractor friend, Chandler Collins, and I asked him to go through it. And he had been through it with me personally, both in class and one-on-one. And I sent it to him and I got a message back a few days later that said something to the effect of, "I didn't think I would be in tears in my living room on a Saturday. Thank you for Momentum Masterclass." And then the follow-up was something like, "One of the most powerful experiences I've had with a class." And, "It's better than doing it with you, in person."

When I got that, I'm like, "Well, if that's not confirmation what is?" And I'd flipped the text back and said, "What do you mean it's better than doing it with me in person, Chandler?" Come on, I knew I could put it out, I didn't think I could put it online. But now here's somebody telling me it's actually better. I thought it wasn't going to be as good, and it's better. And he said, "Well, you know, Alex, when you're in person, sometimes you talk really fast. This time I got to rewind things, look, watch them again. Sometimes you're kind of intimidating. It's a lot less intimidating watching you on video. And I got a lot more out of the exercises." So not only was I in a place where I was convinced I wasn't a unicorn, but I was now being told it was better if I wasn't there.

I think that my story applies to every business's story out there because every time I felt like there was something in my business that I was the only one that could do it, we have created a system or a process or hired a person and I didn't have to be there anymore, and that's where my business has scaled.

So for you, this is the epiphany, the discovery. This is what I want you to understand is once you drop the idea that you are special, you will see what you should be doing. Do we all have unique ability where we should be focused? Do we all have the thing that we bring to the table at a higher level than everybody else? Of course we do. Or my zone of genius is a very narrow, very so imperceptible zone of genius than some people would think it didn't even exist. But when I'm working in that place, that's when I'm working at my absolute best.

And you know what? Going through one-on-one Momentum Masterclass frameworks, that really wasn't my zone of genius. That wasn't the only place that I can be. So this is important, this is crucial because once you get out of your own way, once you drop the feeling that you're a unicorn, once you stop that pattern in your head that says you're the only one that can do it, the faster your business is going to scale because the more special you think you are, the more you think it's you, the more you think you can't have somebody else do it, build a process, create a project, hire a person, the more constraint you will feel in your business. In fact, if your business isn't growing as fast as you want it to, it may be this, it may be the fact that you haven't offloaded and gotten rid of the tactical and given it to somebody else so that you don't have to do it.

The next thing I want you to understand is the more you believe you are a unicorn, the more you will limit your contribution. See, if you think you're the only one who can do it. If you're in the place where you have to be in the room, where people have to see you directly, then you are limiting the contribution you can make. You are actively holding yourself back. You are making it so that you can't do as much as you possibly would. If you are feeling these things, I want you to know you're not alone. The reason this is a constant topic of discussion in my coaching groups is that I work with entrepreneurs who create multimillion dollar businesses. They are wildly talented. They do amazing things in the world and so it would make sense for them to think that they're the only person that could do those amazing things that could create that outcome, that could create the effect, but the reality is proven over and over again that it's just not true. You can get help, you can scale, you can get support.

You need to do a time study, two weeks, write down everything you're doing for 15 minutes and figure out what's tactical and what strategic. In fact, if you don't want to do the time study every 15 minutes, sit down right now today with your calendar and go back two weeks and look at everything you have on your appointments, everything in your to do. And I want you to ask yourself, is it tactical that somebody else could help you out or is it strategic? You're the only person that could be doing it? The fact is you're going to find a ton of tactical. How do I know this? Because I work with entrepreneurs for years and even at the end of four years, five years, seven years, 10 years of working together. When they do a time study, you know they find a ton of tactical that they can offload. The way that you get out of this place is you turn your tactical into process, you hand it off to people you, you continue to up level what you're doing every single week, every month over and over again to where you're doing things that are more strategic, higher level outcomes, you're building an operation around you, you're building an infrastructure around you and then you will grow like crazy.

And as you do this, allow for shifts in perspective as you grow. You might realize that the thing you thought was the most important thing that you did for the business somebody else can do. In fact, I've been through that so many different times it's been confusing, in the moment.

I remember when we started CDP, our real estate product, I taught every single class for the first year. There was, I taught thousands of students me, one to many in front of a room, no leverage. We weren't doing it online yet. It was just me in front of classes. Then we started doing it online. Then the product started growing like crazy. Then we had to hire speakers to take over the thing that I thought was the most important thing I did in the business. We did it, we ended up hiring speakers. We brought in Tony Martinez as our first one. Then Dolores, Rob, then a whole group of speakers. And you know what? Every speaker within just a few months was normally getting better reviews in the classes than I got.

That was a little tough for my ego, but you know what? Then I realized speakers, the people we hired, that's all they had to do, they were just speaking. They weren't running the company, going on television, answering questions from the US treasury, talking with the major brokerages across the US. Those were all strategic things that I was doing. The speakers were focused just on speaking. So they actually did better than I did. So not only are you not a unicorn, you will find situations over and over again where the thing you feel like is the most important thing you're doing, someone else can not only do it, but they can do it better. They can get a better outcome. They can give you better leverage, and you will grow even faster. This is what I want you to know so that you can get out of your own way and grow your business.

So here's how it works, when you release the belief that you are the only one, you will grow your contribution and change the world because none of us is the only one who can do it. And if you're willing to understand that and get leverage and build a team around you and build an infrastructure around you, your business will start growing faster than you ever thought possible. And here's what's more important, you, as a human being will start growing faster than you ever thought possible because the more we hold ourselves in that box of this is what I can do and should do, the more we limit our growth, limit what we bring into the world and limit our contribution, which at the end of the day, as entrepreneurs, that limits the size of our company and it limits our income. None of those are acceptable for us.

So I want you to learn how to offload, how to get help, and how to build a team around you that can help you create momentum because thankfully, you are not a unicorn.

Now, if you want some help with this, we have a program available that I think would really help. In fact, if you go to billionairecodefoundation.com we have a new program and it's coming out at the end of this month, right at the beginning of July. So don't wait too long to go check it out, billionairecodefoundation.com. And it is a program where we're going to show you how to create a strategic plan. Here's why this is important, once you have a strategic plan and you understand where your business is going and you absolve the issue of not having clarity, you will be able to get the help and the support you need around the areas of the business that will help you grow. And if you want to prove to yourself you're not a unicorn and grow your business and get leverage and stop trying to do it all yourself, Billionaire Code Foundation will be life changing for you.

And here's the big thing that I want you to understand. If you get involved with the beta that launches right at the beginning of July, I'm going to be your coach for the first six week. I will be conducting the group coaching sessions. I will be doing the Q&A. I will be spending intimate time with the people who buy into Billionaire Code Foundation right now to show you exactly how to build a strategic plan for your business that you can execute. If you have a team, you and your team can execute, it will give you clarity as to where you're going, and it will show you how to strategically grow faster than you may have ever thought possible.

Check out billionairecodefoundation.com and remember, you can get help, you can get leverage, you can grow your business and you are not a unicorn.